Pelosi calls for Snowden’s prosecution

The NSA leaker broke the law and should be prosecuted, House Minority Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) charged Thursday.

In her first public remarks since Edward Snowden outed himself, Pelosi said the former defense contractor and CIA employee violated sections of the Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and should be held accountable.

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“On the strength of leaking that [information], yes, that would be a prosecutable offense, and I think that he should be prosecuted,” Pelosi said Thursday at a press conference in the Capitol.

With her comments, Pelosi joins a growing list of congressional leaders – including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) – who have condemned Snowden for uncovering several National Security Agency surveillance programs, even as others are calling him a hero.

The secret operations were uncovered last week in a series of articles in The Guardian and The Washington Post. Under one program, the NSA is sweeping up information related to every phone call being place on the Verizon network – an effort supported by an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. A separate NSA program, dubbed PRISM, has been gathering internet data from foreign users.